November 1, 2022
Day 12
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"Were you able to find out what stopped the abductions?"
Neha, who had settled into her role as the settlement representative, asked a panting Shahid.
The leader of the Jafrabad settlement's defensive forces took a few sips of the offered water before replying.
"Even with everything that has changed in the world we live in, some things remain the same. Dozens of parents complained about missing children and nothing happened. But the moment those fuckers stepped on a minister's toes, the whole operation was called off. Not that the government would ever admit that there was any operation in the first place. My father had gone to Lutyen's Delhi in an attempt to broker peace, and all he got in response were empty platitudes. The people behind the atrocities being committed upon the Jafrabad settlement would be found and dealt with. Punished to the fullest extent of the law, they had even said. Two days later, and it was my dad that was dealt with."
Neha's expression fell as Shahid said that last part.
"He died a martyr, believing in what he stood for till his last breath. Despite everything that was going on, he still saw the good in people. But I don't understand what this government is up to. They have all the power, and yet they play games. If they wish to end this settlement, why don't they just send in the army and be done with it? Instead, they send mercenaries to fight the adults while goons sneak in and abduct the students."
Shahid's face twitched at that, and his tone as he spoke was laced with fury.
"Don't mince words, Neha. They send in mercenaries to kill the Muslims, not the adults. Or have you forgotten all the young children that died before you started hiding them among college students? And as far as the abduction are concerned, they are killing the Muslim kids and returning the others to their families. Most of them at least."
Neha paled at the venom in Shahid's voice, but she could not blame him. He had recently lost both his father and his sister. His father had been killed, but Zoya had been abducted. She hoped that the goons had killed her before they could discover her identity.
Neha spoke again, trying to change the subject back to Shahid's recent discovery.
"You mentioned something about stepping on toes. Do you know exactly what happened?"
Shahid answered, with no small amount of schadenfreude.
"As I said, the mercenaries were paid to deal with the Muslims and leave the students alone. A separate group of street thugs and goons were hired to abduct the students and bring them safely to their families or take them to one of the refugee centers. Of course, not everyone who was abducted found their way to their homes, and many parents came searching here and complained to the government. No action was taken, until one of the girls that the goons had kept for themselves turned out to be a minister's daughter, and someone recognized her."
"The instant word reached the minister, the whole abduction business was put to a stop. Apparently, very few in the newly set-up government are aware of what is happening here, and maybe the highest levels are being kept in the dark. But still, a country doing this to its own citizens."
Neha felt nauseated by what she heard, and worries about Zoya that she had pushed deep down started surfacing again.
"This apocalypse has brought out the worst in people."
To Neha's surprise, even after all that had happened to his community, Shahid protested.
"No, not in everyone. I got caught by a patrol today. I could have taken them on and defeated the group, but not without alerting everyone of my location. If I stayed out in the open for longer, I would have certainly been killed. The leader of the patrol, however, just let me go."
Perhaps there is more of his father in him than I realized.
Neha thought, and sighed. This heartwarming tale did nothing to ease her worries about her friend.
With every new piece of information, it becomes less and less likely that Zoya is dead.
The truth turns out to be much worse than Neha's worst nightmares.
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November 2, 2022
Day 13
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"The physical symptoms are because of potion sickness and will pass in a few days. The emotional trauma though, I am..."
Despite her body convulsing incessantly, Zoya interrupted the steward.
"I will be fine after my brother cuts off every dick a hundred miles from here."
The sheer effort it took to speak in that weakened state exhausted Zoya, and she fainted. Her convulsions didn't stop.
The steward, who had been summoned urgently to examine her after a goon had dropped her at the campus door, carried her to a heavily guarded room.
"I'm going."
Shahid announced, and without waiting for a reply, ran out of the campus perimeter. His elite squad, The Hundred, wordlessly followed.
If I'm going to do this, I will need to be stronger. Much stronger than I am now.
He thought, trying to calm his mad rage into something cold and calculating.
And I know of only one way to advance levels quickly.
The last time Shahid had been this furious was when all the men in his settlement had perished in that first attack.
I had jumped from level 21 to 29 on that day.
In the week that followed, unending skirmishes and attacks had reduced the number of women and children to half, but Shahid's father had still advocated for peace, a mistake that he paid for with his life.
The skirmishes had continued, but since his father died, Shahid made sure to make the mercenaries and goons pay for every life they took. He had killed at least a thousand mercenaries himself, and his elites put together had killed at least ten times as many. Most of those enemies had been under level ten, with level 25+ elites leading them.
With those sheer numbers, he had gained 8 more levels and reached level 37.
37 is far from enough. By now, their elites too have reached the early 30s, and they have hundreds of them. About a dozen are close to my level. I need a decisive advantage if I'm to do what my sister wanted.
Without his father around to keep him in check, Shahid was afraid of where this line of thought would take him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Will I kill the weak just for levels? Will I kill innocents? So far I've only fought to defend my settlement. Am I willing to become the aggressor, to become a monster just to have my vengeance?
When Shahid recalled what his sister had told him, the answer came unbidden to him.
"They didn't just rape me, they made a ritual out of it. Every time you killed someone, their friends would come in and have their vengeance on my body. Once they were done, they would shove a healing potion down my throat, so I was in prime condition for the next group."
Zoya was innocent too. She never leveled past six. She never killed a single human. For what they did to her, I'll burn their whole city down.
With that, Shahid went on a killing spree. With every life he took, he inched closer to the place where Zoya had been held the past two days. His bag of holding had enough arrows to paint the streets red, and he spared no thought for the allegiance of the people he killed.
Mercenary, militia, and civilians alike fell to his arrows, and in his rage, Shahid didn't even know whether that kind man who had let him go last night was among the casualties.
If he is alive, he would certainly be regretting his decision now.
Shahid thought coldly.
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When he got the notification for level 40, Shahid stopped and allocated his stats.
He looked back and confirmed that there were still a hundred silent women following him, shooting arrows at anyone who tried to surround the man.
The burqa-clad elite squad of hundred archers was backed by a feeder squad numbering in the thousands, and its strength never increased nor fell. Whenever one of the elites died, her body was taken back to the campus and she was silently replaced by the highest-level member of the feeder squad.
Due to this, the outside world saw a nightmarish squad of 100 elites who never died, earning them a nickname that suffixed their official title.
The Hundred Ghouls
While Shahid had made it a practice never to read the names of the women he followed him, he did keep track of the levels and was happy to see that the group too had leveled alongside him.
Happy?
Shahid considered his emotions.
Thousands of innocents are dead. And yet I feel happy.
With that morbid realization, Shahid and The Hundred launched the assault on the lawless territory that the thugs and goons had claimed for themselves.
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November 3, 2022
Day 14
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It was early next morning when Shahid returned, and as soon as he did, Zoya summoned a steward. She spoke to both the steward and Shahid at the same time.
"I don't know what you did, but the settlement has been under attack the entire night. Short of pulling in the army, they seem to be giving it all that they've got, and we have suffered very heavy casualties."
Shahid snorted.
"I did some information gathering as I fought last night. They aren't pulling in the army because they can't. The government has deployed the strongest forces to the northern border. The Himalayas are fraught with battle, so much of it that the Yamuna has a visible tinge of red in it. There seem to be a few specializations that offer long-range communication, and the government had those guys coordinating the army movement in the north. I have abducted every one of the living radios I could find, so even if the government deems us a big enough problem, they will have difficulty with the logistics of getting the army back."
Then, turning to the steward, he spoke.
"That would only buy us some time. We need a permanent solution. Today is the World Congress, were you able to find out who the stranded individuals are on that island? I have no ambitions involving the dungeon, I just want a place for my people to stay. Would they be willing to agree? If not, are we strong enough to take over their settlement by force, and then hold it?"
The steward smiled.
"Are you strong enough to take the settlement by force? I don't know. The steward who gave all this information, the prince, refused to reveal the levels of the individuals on the island, only their names. Even if you take the settlement, would you be able to hold it? Most certainly not. While you have entered the top ten with your 43 levels, the rest of the settlement is weak, and your elite hundred reached are also in the early thirties."
He paused, considered something, then continued.
"A massive improvement in strength for a single night, but not enough. We might be able to last the first few waves, but definitely won't get past the 5th."
Shahid reiterated his other questions.
"What about an alliance then? Did you find out who all are stranded on the island?"
The steward answered.
"Yes, apparently a flight of software engineers who were on a retreat to Japan is stranded there. Out of the 160 individuals, only 8 are remaining, but they must have grown quite strong, with the beast bastions and now the dungeon."
Neha had of course known that her brother was on a flight when the integration happened, but she had dismissed the likelihood of him having anything to do with the tiered dungeon.
So when she heard the steward mention software engineers and a Japan retreat, her ears perked up. The moment she heard the second part, she immediately asked, her heart beating.
"The names."
Everyone in the room looked at her, surprised.
Then there was recognition in Shahid's eyes. Zoya had told her about Neha's missing brother. He spoke up.
"The names, Zendyr. The names of the individuals who have survived."
Zendyr the steward listed the names.
"Daniel Walter, Helena Vardalos, Ivan Antonov, Rahul Sharma, .."
Neither Neha nor Shahid heard the remaining names. They were both smiling.
Neha for her brother.
And Shahid for the fifty thousand remaining civilians of Jafrabad.
The steward went on speaking.
"You may try to strike a deal with them, and it might work. But all this is assuming that the world congress event turns out to be the 7-wave style event that I had told you about. Nothing is certain, and this is just what the steward assembly has predicted based on what has happened in the past in similar circumstances."
But everyone had seen Neha and Shahid's expressions and there was no one paying attention to the steward anymore.
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As Shahid looked at the people assembled for the world congress, an unease crept into his mind.
Why is there so little representation from the Indian government?
He had expected some high-ranking officials as well as their elite guards to be there, but there was only one person present. Even local powers and large independent settlements from India had bigger groups, and Shahid himself had brought 2 elites and 2 communication specialists with him.
Are they planning something?
All of Shahid's fears came true as a communication specialist told him he had a message from Neha.
"As we had expected, the moment you left, the attacks on the bastion grew more serious. Our defenses held for some time, but something just changed and now we are being pushed back."
The next message came a minute later.
"Your lieutenant has told me that some kind of uniformed forces have been deployed against us and that we won't be able to hold out for long."
As more and more distressing messages came, Shahid could only sit and send back encouraging words, asking them to hold out just a bit longer.
My attack last night played right into their hands. Instead of only the fringe elements, the entire government would be supporting the attack now, letting them send the private bodyguards of the ministers and the security forces responsible for guarding Lutyen's Delhi.
The next hour was the longest hour of his life, and as the various powers debated what was to be done about the tiered dungeon, Shahid felt more and more helpless.
When his presence Despair manifested, Shahid got a title for being the first person in their entire integration cohort to manifest a presence during a system event.
The sizeable bonus did nothing to help his mood, and just when the congress was about to end, he got another message.
"The attacks suddenly stopped, but there are less than ten thousand of us left now, mostly students. The Hundred fought valiantly, and they are now only 53. I'm fine, Zoya is safe too."
That came as a relief to Shahid. He hadn't expected anyone to survive this attack.
They must have known that the congress is about to end and pulled back the forces to prepare for my return and counterattack.
His face curved into a disturbing smile.
A costly mistake. They should have killed everyone. Maybe then I would have ended my own life to stop the cycle of violence. But Zoya is alive, and I have something to live for. So I will live, I will grow, and I will return.
It just won't be today.
With those words, Shahid equipped his cloak and made the payment that allowed him and his small group of elite fighters and communication specialists to go to the Laysan Bastion, as part of the 'friendly wave'.
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Shahid looked at his new surroundings and found the levels of the island residents and the others who had teleported with him to be abysmally low.
No one came here because they are certain that all present here today would die within a few waves. The ones who came are all desperate, much like me. But unlike me, they are pathetically weak. And the residents of the Bastion are the weakest of them all. Neha's brother seems to be the highest level among them, but level 22 won't even earn him a spot in The Hundred.
But with the memory of the 300,000-strong original population of Jafrabad having fallen to a few thousand fresh in his mind, Shahid thought about how the 100+ here had turned to a mere eight, and cut them some slack.
Maybe I'll train them first. If there are some talented individuals here, I might even make some progress toward fulfilling the conditions for the Sniper General class. After what happened in the congress, blowing some steam would be good for my mental health.
But as he looked at the pathetic levels of everyone around him and on the island.
If they were any good, they wouldn't be languishing behind like this.
Shahid realized how ridiculous his hopes were, and reconsidered whether he should even bother with such an elaborate farce just to train these weaklings.
Hardly a dozen level 30 fighters in this riff-raff. This isn't even worth my time.